Ministry of Justice

Courts: Domestic Abuse

lord beecham: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 21 May (HL Deb, col 1863), what consideration they have given to providing (1) separate waiting facilities for the parties, and (2) facilities to enable the giving of evidence by screen or video link, for court cases relating to domestic abuse.

lord keen of elie: From context we have assumed the honourable member is asking about the family courts. (1) In family courts, vulnerable parties and witnesses may request the use of a separate entrance and waiting area. Where dedicated separate entrances or waiting areas are not available, court staff will make alternative arrangements wherever possible. (2) In the family court over 300 protective screens have been provided over the last two years to ensure that vulnerable parties and witnesses can be shielded from an alleged abuser in the courtroom. Video links may also be used either from a secure location within the court building or from a remote location. Use of these facilities must be approved by the Judge. Use of telephone hearings for without notice Family Law Act injunction hearings is being encouraged to avoid the need for victims of domestic abuse to attend court. We are determined that the family courts should never be used to further or perpetrate abuse. The Government announced on 21 May 2019 the establishment of an expert panel to gather evidence of how the family courts protect children and parents in cases of domestic abuse and other serious offences. Once formed, it is intended that the panel will report within three months.

Courts: Prisons

lord beith: To ask Her Majesty's Government what provision, if any, Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service has madefor courts to sit in prisons when a prisoner refuses either to attend court or to take part in a video link between a prison and a court.

lord keen of elie: A decision that a court should sit within a prison when a defendant refuses to attend court in person or by video link is for the judiciary. If such a decision is made HMCTS , in conjunction with HMPPS Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service makes the necessary arrangements. The Court has no legal power to direct a prison officer (including a Governor) to use force or to compel a prisoner to attend court.

Personal Independence Payment: Appeals

baroness thomas of winchester: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to decrease waiting times for Personal Independence Payment tribunal appeals.

lord keen of elie: It is important that appeals are heard as quickly as possible. The Ministry of Justice recognises that there are delays in the system and is in the process of recruiting more judicial office holders in order to increase capacity and help to reduce waiting times for appellants. In the Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) jurisdiction, 225 new medical members and 119 disability-qualified members have recently been appointed and are now hearing cases. The SSCS jurisdiction will also benefit from the fact that 250 fee-paid judges and 100 salaried judges are being recruited across tribunals more widely. In addition, we have recently launched a new digital service with a view to enabling speedier processing of appeals and providing a better service for all parties to the proceedings.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Marshall Scholarships

baroness meyer: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for increasing the number of students who can participate in the Marshall Scholarship programme to 100;and what assessment they have made of the benefits of that programme to the UK's international reputation.

lord ahmad of wimbledon: ​For 65 years, the Marshall Scholarship programme has created lasting bridges between the US and the UK by funding intellectually distinguished young Americans to undertake postgraduate studies in Britain. Marshall scholars become advocates for greater depth and breadth of interaction, co-operation and mutual understanding between the two countries, with many going on to senior positions in politics, business, the law and other fields. The Government increased the programme's funding in 2017, allowing up to 50 scholarships to be awarded per year. This increased investment reflects the strengthened commitment of the British Government to the value of this programme and to the Special Relationship. The Tailored Review of the programme this year concluded that it continues to support UK-US relations, and in line with the review's recommendations, we will be building on work to develop our processes for evaluating the programme's impact.

EU Countries: Embassies

lord radice: To ask Her Majesty's Government what upgrades and enhancements they have made to (1) staffing, and (2) facilities, at embassies in the EU27 nations since the EU referendum.

lord ahmad of wimbledon: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has created approximately 550 EU Exit roles in the UK and overseas. We have used these roles to strengthen our diplomatic network in the UK and across Europe so that we are better able to represent and promote British interests and engage with our European partners in support of a successful EU Exit. In addition, other staff are also engaged on EU Exit planning as part of their wider responsibilities. We continue to keep staffing levels under constant review to ensure that they are appropriate to deliver the Government's objectives.We undertake regular reviews of our estate portfolio around the world. This is a continuing process to ensure the estate is fit for purpose and offers the best value for money in delivering Her Majesty's Government objectives. No major estates projects were undertaken because of the result of the referendum. A number of Posts have carried out small changes to their office layouts as well as routine maintenance.

Department for Work and Pensions

Universal Credit

baroness lister of burtersett: To ask Her Majesty's Government whatassessment they have made of the recommendations to improve information provision for Universal Credit claimants in the report by the Child Poverty Action Group Computer says ‘No!' Stage one: information provision, published in May.

baroness buscombe: Universal Credit is designed to react and respond quickly to feedback from our stakeholders and claimants to improve the service we offer. This means that any report based on a view of the service at a given date may well be inaccurate only a short period afterwards. This is the case with this Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) report. The report does not take into account recent changes to the Universal Credit Statement which ensures that claimants receive detailed information about any deductions which have been made to their Universal Credit award, including a clear breakdown of what each deduction is for. Consequently, the Department has written to CPAG about the report, outlining the up to date position on these issues and inviting CPAG and his Honour Judge Sir Stephen Sedley, who wrote the report’s foreword, to meet to discuss these matters. The Department will continue to make improvements to Universal Credit to ensure that we provide claimants with the information they need to understand their Universal Credit award.

Equality

baroness primarolo: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Buscombe on 21 May (HL Deb, col 1858), on what evidence they base their statement that “inequality has fallen”; and whether they will publish that evidence.

baroness buscombe: National statistics on income inequality are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication using the Gini coefficient. The Gini coefficient is an international standard technical measure of how incomes are distributed across all individuals. It ranges from 0% (when everyone has identical incomes) to 100% (when all income goes to only one person). From 2009/10 to 2017/18 income inequality, measured using the before housing cost Gini coefficient, has fallen by 2 percentage points. See the table below for the annual statistics from 2009/10 to 2017/18. This data is published annually on the “Households Below Average Income” website on gov.uk. YearIncome inequality (Gini Coefficient. %)2009/10362010/11342011/12342012/13342013/14342014/15342015/16352016/17342017/1834

Department of Health and Social Care

Dementia

baroness crawley: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to publish a national dementia strategy for beyond 2020; and if so, when.

baroness blackwood of north oxford: We expect to publish a new dementia strategy for England for the period 2020 to 2025 early next year.

Dementia

baroness crawley: To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made towards meeting the aims of the Prime Minister’s challenge on dementia.

baroness blackwood of north oxford: We have committed to implement fully the Government’s Challenge on Dementia 2020 strategy to make this country the best place in the world to live with dementia. Our recent review of progress tells us we are largely on track to meet our commitments to improve the lives of those living with dementia, their families and carers. The Dementia 2020 Challenge: 2018 Review Phase 1 report is attached. Examples of progress we have made so far with our delivery partners include more than two thirds of people with dementia receiving a diagnosis, over 2.8 million people becoming Dementia Friends and 365 areas in England committing to being Dementia Friendly Communities. In the £250 million Dementia Discovery Fund we have the largest venture fund in the world aimed at discovering and developing novel pre-clinical therapies for dementia.



Dementia 2020 Challenge 2018 Review Phase 1
(PDF Document, 202.11 KB)

Health Services: Artificial Intelligence

lord taylor of warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to invest in the development and use of artificial intelligence in the UK healthcare sector.

baroness blackwood of north oxford: The Department of Health and Social Care is leading on the Prime Minister’s Mission to “Use data, Artificial Intelligence and innovation to transform the prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases by 2030.” We hope that as we work towards this overall goal, we can ensure that: patients experience better care, clinicians deliver better care, commissioners are better able to commission data-driven technologies and the United Kingdom is a great place to do business in artificial intelligence (AI) for health and care.We are working in partnership with organisations across the National Health Service, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Office for Life Sciences, Office for Artificial Intelligence and Better Regulation Executive to engage with businesses in the sector so that we benefit from the potential for AI to improve care, deliver better outcomes, contribute to efficiency in the health and care system and contribute to the wider economy. In September 2018, we published the Code of Conduct for Data-Driven Health and Care Technology, which clearly sets out the behaviours we expect from those developing AI and related technologies. The Code was updated in February 2019 based on feedback, including from industry partners, and we are working with them to develop case studies showing good practice in complying with the Code. We are also developing tools to help businesses comply with the Code of Conduct.The Office for Artificial Intelligence and UK Research and Innovation have announced centres for doctoral training in AI-enabled healthcare across the UK.The Office for Life Sciences has established five Centres of Excellence in digital pathology and radiology with AI, supported by an initial £50 million Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund investment and a further £50 million of scale up funding from the Department of Health and Social Care. The centres are working with NHS and industry partners, including innovative small and medium-sized enterprises, to develop pioneering AI-enabled pathology and radiology tools.In addition we are also working closely with Health Education England as they follow through on the recommendations made by the Topol Review Preparing the healthcare workforce to deliver the digital future.In March 2019, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published its Evidence Standards Framework for Digital Health Technologies, outlining the evidence required by businesses to demonstrate the effectiveness and economic impact of digital health technologies.Taken together these steps, and others, will ensure there is a clear framework for the development and use of AI in the healthcare sector including the skills, a clear path to market, and a rigorous process for ensuring the safety, efficacy and ethics of the tools developed, deployed and used.

Malnutrition: Screening

baroness thomas of winchester: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to offer screening for malnutrition at GP surgeries and pharmacies in England.

baroness blackwood of north oxford: The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) advises ministers and the National Health Service in all four countries about all aspects of screening policy and supports implementation. Using research evidence, pilot programmes and economic evaluation, it assesses the evidence for programmes against a set of internationally recognised criteria. The UK NSC has not reviewed the evidence to screen for malnutrition, however the Committee welcomes new topic proposals via its annual call for topics which opens each year from September to December. The UK NSC has published its evidence review process online on GOV.UK, which includes how to submit a new topic proposal.

Nutrition

baroness thomas of winchester: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of appointing a clinical lead for nutrition for the NHS in England.

baroness blackwood of north oxford: NHS England and NHS Improvement have a lead Nutrition and Hydration Specialist in Quality Improvement. Their work focusses on building collaboratives to improve nutrition and hydration within providers. In addition, Public Health England’s (PHE) Chief Nutritionist provides leadership and strategic oversight on key priority areas of diet, nutrition, obesity and physical activity to PHE, the Department and other Government departments.

Treasury

National Insurance Contributions: Pensioners

lord forsyth of drumlean: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have made an estimate of the revenue which could be raised if the exemption from employee and employer's national insurance contributions for people above pensionable age was removed; and if so, what is that estimate.

lord young of cookham: The “Estimated costs of principal tax reliefs” publication, sets out an estimate of the cost of the exemption of those over State pension age from paying National Insurance. It is estimated that the cost of this exemption is approximately £1.1bn in 2018-19. The estimates do not allow for any behavioural changes as a result of the reliefs. In practice if a relief was withdrawn, taxpayers’ behaviour would be likely to alter so that the actual yield could be lower than that shown in the tables. Employers are not currently exempt from paying employer NICs for their employees above the state pension age.

Banks: Hacking

lord radice: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the advice of the government of Sweden to its citizens to keep cash on hand against the possibility of a hacking attack on the banking system; and whether they are considering giving similar advice to UK citizens.

lord young of cookham: The Government has not provided similar advice to UK citizens. HM Treasury works closely with the other Financial Authorities, Intelligence Agencies and Law Enforcement to ensure that the system is robust to a wide range of operational risks, including cyber. The Financial Authorities have well-established mechanisms to respond to operational disruption were it to occur.

Cash Dispensing

lord sharkey: To ask Her Majesty's Government, for each of the last 24 months for which data is available, (1) what was the total stock of ATMs and how many of those were free to use; (2) how many free to use ATMs have been closed; (3) how many of those closures were in areas of economic deprivation; and (4) how many were one mile or more from the nearest remaining free to use ATMs.

lord young of cookham: In 2015, the Government established the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), with a statutory objective to ensure that the UK’s payment systems work in the interests of their users. As a result, the PSR is closely monitoring developments within ATM provision, and has used its powers to ensure LINK meets its commitment on maintaining the broad geographical spread of free-to-use ATMs. Data on the total stock of ATMs in the UK and how this has changed each year since 1998, including the split between free-to-use and pay-to-use ATMs, is publicly available on the LINK website. LINK also publish monthly data on their Financial Inclusion Programme, including on the numbers of free-to-use ATMs in deprived areas. In addition, data on the numbers of free-to-use ATMs 1 kilometre or further from the next nearest free-to-use ATM are provided each month in LINK’s publicly available ATM Footprint Report.